WITH Warmseal Durham Senior League championship contenders Whitburn and Hetton Lyons refusing to give an inch to each other, Boldon were able to take a huge stride forward in their own title quest.

The leaders simply overpowered Marsden in a totally one-sided contest, with Boldon skipper Chris Ellison in imperious form as he crashed a wonderful 140 not out

That enabled his team to close their innings on 208 for 2 and allow themselves time to get at the visiting batsmen.

And get at them they did as Johnny Wightman (4-27) and Phil Shakespeare (3-12) led the assault.

It was finished off by Matthew Sampson-Barnes (2-0) who came on to remove limpet like opener Chris Mann and end the game, Marsden skittled for 69.

Four of the other five games ended in stalemate which meant Boldon increased their lead to 23 points at the exact halfway stage of the season.

The only other result came at Seaham Harbour where Durham City added to the woes of the bottom club. City’s declared score of 200-5 owed much to Mike Elliott’s free flowing 68, which included 11 fours.

Then Colin Myers (6-49) and Aussie Mark Woodhead (3-30) ripped Harbour out for 120 in just 28 overs.

It was all change at the top of the Readers Durham County League as Willington toppled leaders Shildon to allow Kimblesworth to ease into first place.

Shildon were derailed by the combination of Kiwi Sam Wells (5-24) and Mumtaz Habib (3-38), and they subsided to 108 all out.

But Shildon’s Phil Timmens (3-46) made the visitors fight all the way for their win, which came with just four wickets to spare.